Verona, Italy; City of Romance

I was not planning to visit Verona at all, but a friend told me that it is good to visit as Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s Castle) is located there, and so I visited the city with some of my friends.

We visited the so-called castle and there’s a bronze Juliet statue in the courtyard. Most all of the tourists seemed to be wanting to be photographed with the statue while groping its breast. For good luck in love, they said. I was not too keen and I refuse to belief the myth.

Juliet statue by Nereo Costantini (1905-1969).

The area was too full with tourists and we couldn’t even breathe, so we opted walking outside the castle, along the old street, that looks more enticing.

Verona tends to bring out the romantic in everyone who made the trip to see Juliet’s castle, balcony and statue, which in reality are just a good bit of marketing strategy to market Verona to tourists. Historians said there is nothing to link the house to Shakespeare’s tragic love story but however, archaeologists unearthed skeletons believed to be Romeo and Juliet outside Mantua, 25 miles south of Verona.

But anyway, despite the romantic fiction, the town is full of artistic, historical and cultural histories. Some of the places we visited was Castelvecchio, Piazza Brà and the Roman Arena.

Castelvecchio (Old castle) with its amazing fortified bridge, represent a military monument of the Scaligera (the Scaligera was the noble family, also called “della Scala”, that governed Verona) dominion. The castle housed Verona’s principal art gallery.

We visited Piazza Brà, a large open square where the town’s most remarkable sight, the Arena, is located. The main part of The Arena is well preserved, though an outer ring of arches is almost lost. With a total length of 139 meters and a width of 110 meters, it is one of the largest amphitheatres in the world and, after the one in Rome.